Random Dharma

I'm sure we all know/have been a meditator like this

I liked today's post from Brad Warner: hardcorezen.info/thats-just-the-content-of-your-zazen/4760

As to the question of whether zazen is “working” even when it feels like nothing is going on, I would say yes it is.

Whenever I asked questions like yours to my teacher Nishijima Roshi, he would say, “That’s just the content of your zazen.” Sleepy content, restless content, angry content, busy-thoughts content, sex-obsessed content, blissful content, feeling enlightened content, feeling stupid content… It didn’t matter. It was all the content of my zazen.

theoatmeal.com/comics/unhappy

More from Donald Hoffman
www.quantamagazine.org/20160421-the-evol...ent-against-reality/

(for a much deeper dive, that I didn't take) www.researchgate.net/publication/4536510...Veridical_Perception

Basic Space
Opening
Don't look away
When There's nothing there.

-The XX (an alt rock band)

cool band, I like their style

Not to blow my own trumpet but in a former life as a music reviewer I reviewed their album Coexist. TL;DR - I like their old stuff better than their new stuff

www.tinymixtapes.com/music-review/the-xx-coexist

New interview with Vince:

Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero) and Vincent Horn (vincenthorn.com, Meditate.io, Buddhist Geeks)

■ Can smartphones help you meditate? 6:06
■ Bringing virtual reality and meditation together 7:18
■ Vincent’s experience teaching meditation online 7:43
■ Circumventing the rational mind via inquiry meditation 4:04
■ Becoming conscious of consciousness 7:20
■ Vincent’s “modular” approach to meditation 13:00
■ Is Vincent enlightened? 7:12

meaningoflife.tv/videos/36202

I've just started listening...

EDIT: finished it, it's good.

Thanks for posting this! I enjoyed it.

www.familiesagainstcultteachings.org/Cul...ucation/Fact-sheets/

I'm gonna start quoting out of Bill Hamilton's book...

§ A woman complained to Ajaan Fuang that she had been meditating for a long time but
still couldn't cut any of her defilements. He laughed and said, "You don't have to cut them.
Do you think you can? The defilements were part and parcel of this world long before you
came. You were the one who came looking for them. Whether or not you come, they exist
on their own. And who says that they're defilements? Have they ever told you their
names? They simply go their own way. So try to get acquainted with them. See both their
good and their bad sides."

I'm sorry but I gotta ask for a source on this. Just cause most of the Thai masters are part of the "actually DO something about the defilements" camp, which contrasts with the Burmese choiceless awareness.

The Thai Forest tradition is interesting, because in theory and framing it is straight-down-the-line Theravada (i.e. based on the Pali Canon transcendental model with an emphasis progress and on removal of that which is undesirable) but in fact, perhaps because the important Thai Forest teachers seem to have done a lot of their own experiential rediscovery, it often has an approach which seems much more Zenlike or even a bit Advaita - as does the above quote, which doesn't sound at all like a Pali Canon model.

I respect the request for a citation!

www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/thai/fuang/itself.html

Thanks! So I read through the varied instances where that word is used. When Ajaan gave that choiceless awareness instruction, it was specifically for a novice meditator who needed to begin to understand the mechanics of mind: similar to the Pali Canons graduated discourse. When he's talking to more experienced practitioners, he does speak of doing battle with, and eventually eliminating the defilements. I'm currently on mobile but could quote later if that would be helpful.

The Idiot’s Guide to Dharma Diagnosis
Kenneth Folk March 14, 2011 1 Comment
One of the questions yogis most often ask is “Where am I on the Theravada Progress of Insight map?” This is a legitimate question and there can be real benefit in knowing the answer. If you are able to align your own experience with the traditional descriptions of the 16 insight knowledges, it helps you to have faith that this practice works, which in turn can motivate you to practice more. Furthermore, your teacher may suggest different practices depending on how far along you are in the process.

Below is a simple guide, designed to be “idiot-proof.” It only includes the most obvious landmarks along the way. Familiarize yourself with these diagnostic criteria and use them to place yourself on the map.

Case Study # 1:

Report: “My meditation used to be good, but now there’s nothing but solid pain when I sit. I sometimes feel nauseous and I want to leave the retreat.”

Diagnosis: 3rd ñana, Knowledge of the Three Characteristics.

“But I also have all kinds of cool insights about this and that.”

Doesn’t matter. If you have persistent solid pain, you’re in the 3rd ñana.

Case Study # 2:

Report: “I had this incredible energy coursing through my body, tingled all over, saw white lights, and had unitive experiences.”

Diagnosis: 4th ñana, Knowledge of the Arising and Passing Away of Phenomena.

“But I had it while on drugs (or in a dream). I never even meditated.”

Doesn’t matter. 4th ñana. Have a nice day.

“But it was so real. I saw God. I know it was enlightenment.”

No, it was the 4th ñana.

Case Study # 3:

Report: “At some time in the past, I had white lights, unitive experiences and delightful tingles. Now my meditation sucks and I hate everything.”

Diagnosis: Dukkha ñanas 6-10, aka Dark Night of the Soul.

“But I feel super enlightened.”

Doesn’t matter. Dukkha ñanas. Thanks for asking.

Case Study # 4:

Report: I went through the 3rd, 4th, and dukkha ñanas (as described above) and now I feel fine every time I sit.

Diagnosis: 11th ñana, Knowledge of Equanimity.

“But I’m not having any insights.”

Right. Knowledge of Equanimity.

Case Study # 5:

Report: I went through the 3rd, 4th, dukkha ñanas, and Equanimity ñana, (as described above), and then one day I was just sitting (or standing, or walking), there was a little blip, and I knew that something was different. It was as though a weight had lifted from me. I felt light and wanted to laugh for a couple of days. After that, my practice was noticeably different than anything that had gone before.

Diagnosis: 14th and 15th ñana, Path and Fruition (1st Path).

“But it was no big deal. More like an anticlimax. But it’s clear that some cycle was completed.”

Exactly. Path and Fruition.

Kenneth Folk
2009

Lots of great material (both inspiring and uninspiring) in this new bio piece on Leonard Cohen with extensive discussion of his spirituality:

www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/10/17/le...ohen-makes-it-darker